She had her way with us for 20 years…
…and now she has left us behind, left our world. I can clearly remember the day she strolled into our lives, a skinny, hungry stray kitten, eyeing my yogurt. Barb and I had both grown up with dogs, and we were unsure about this little girl. We had just moved into the house, the first place we’d had together where we could get a dog, and here was this scruffy little thing, needy, persistent, too proud to beg.
I can’t seem to wake up from this nightmare.
Those who read here are aware of the litany of horrors that have proceeded from the election of Donald Trump — the Muslim ban, the sadistic “zero tolerance” policy at the southern border, the incompetent liars and buffoons appointed to the cabinet, the destruction of U.S. standing in the world, the reversal of efforts to deal with climate change, and so on ad infinitum.
And now Justice Anthony Kennedy is retiring. The Court is currently made up of four liberals, four conservatives, and Kennedy. Kennedy is a Republican, but of the old-fashioned non-partisan persuasion. He believes in the law over ideology, and he has been the “swing vote” over the years, as the Court upheld Roe vs. Wade, acknowledged constitutional rights for same-sex couples, and found the Affordable Care Act constitutional.
Last month the Supreme Court OK’d an anti-gay cakemaker’s refusal to serve…
…a same-sex couple, saying authorities had not been properly deferential to his (Evangelical Christian) religious beliefs at his hearing.
This week, the Court upheld Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims entering the United States, an executive order that has been stopped by the lower courts for a year and a half.
So there you have it. The United States is now officially an Evangelical Christian nation. Muslims need not apply. I wonder when Muslims who are already in the country will be asked to leave? Right wing bigots are certainly getting their money’s worth out of their stolen Court seat.
The summit meeting in Singapore today was a perfect Donald Trump event.
Stagecraft, suspense, pageantry, rhetoric, photo ops, but no real results. Just like on the game show that made him famous, tune in next week to see what happens. After an hour of talking, the two leaders staged a signing ceremony, of a vague document containing promises to do something in the future, full of platitudes about security and prosperity for North Korea.
I’ll be happy if our dealmaker-in-chief pulls off some kind of binding agreement that actually reduces tensions or removes the threat of nuclear war, because hey — who wants nuclear war? But I’d feel a lot better about this whole thing if somebody smarter than Donald J. Trump were over there negotiating in my name. Political and military analysts around the world are saying that the North Koreans have reneged on too many promises over the years to be taken seriously this time without a specific agreed-upon set of requirements and on-the-ground inspections to guarantee compliance, neither of which are in today’s document.
As expected, Trump has made all the concessions so far:
Source: Supreme Court says states can remove voters who skip elections, ignore warnings
The minority party in the United States — the Republicans —
— control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives and the majority of state governments. Because of this, they have been able to pack the Supreme Court with partisans, who are now assisting the party’s voter suppression activities. Neil Gorsuch is the only the first Trump appointee to side with the one-percenters over the rest of us. There will be more.
Today the Court agreed that the state of Ohio can purge eligible registered voters from the voter rolls if they don’t vote in two elections or if they don’t return a postcard sent to “verify” that they still want to be registered to vote. This is the strictest law in the nation, and — surprise! — it turns out that those most affected are those likely to vote Democratic: students, minorities, disabled and the elderly, for example.
Continue reading “Supreme Court Okays Ohio Voter Suppression Law”
Kim Jung Un must be pleased to be sitting down with an American president…
…who has, just a few hours earlier, blown off six of America’s closest and strongest allies. Trump has already backed down on joint U.S. – South Korea military exercises at Kim’s demand. This demonstrates not only that Donald Trump is a wimp who is getting outmaneuvered, but also that he doesn’t give a fuck about the rest of the world.
Continue reading “Treacherous Canadian Stabs US Prez in Back”
Time to move on…
In recognition of the fact that revision99 now seems to have no readers at all, I have changed the title of my blogroll to “What to Rea
d,” and I encourage all my imaginary friends to follow the links and read. I have also deleted all the old entries that link to blogs that either no longer exist or haven’t been updated in years. There are a couple of exceptions and I have my reasons, but they’re my reasons, so I won’t discuss them here.
I’m doing this because I think my affair with Facebook is coming to an end, and I’ll be moving back to this place on the web soon. It’s a lot quieter here, and that’s what I need these days.
I never found Roseanne Barr’s style of nasty redneck humor very funny, and now that she has come out as a racist I’m not particularly surprised about that, either. I’m not a Twitter user
Roseanne’s “apology” is pathetic, too:
I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.
7:33 AM – May 29, 2018
David Remnick conducts the best interview yet of fired FBI Director James Comey.
Humor, probing and previously unasked questions before a live audience, and a more relaxed Comey than we’ve heard before. My favorite quote: Donald Trump has “…a need for affirmation that I’ve never witnessed before in an adult.”
would have crossed paths. But we didn’t because just at that moment a very handsome gentleman, well-dressed, distinguished salt-and-pepper hair, rolled up in a black hundred thousand dollar AMG Mercedes, blocking both of us from proceeding. 
